


sign of the times

by kodzukens



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Percy Jackson Fusion, Demigods, Fluff, M/M, soobin is pretty OP here but all he does is sleep, yeonbin through the years, yeonjun kills a monster while big time rush plays
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29962638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kodzukens/pseuds/kodzukens
Summary: "We're home."Soobin grins at him, the pink glow of the sky looking absolutely beautiful when it’s painting him in its radiance. Yeonjun can’t help but grin back.And they're home.
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 12
Kudos: 38





	sign of the times

**Author's Note:**

> because yeonbin as quest partners sound pretty rad rite

* * *

The day Yeonjun gets his first quest, he’s fifteen and his partner is nowhere to be found. 

This is a one in a lifetime opportunity, a life or death case, something Yeonjun has always wanted, and his partner is nowhere to be found.

“There is only one possible answer then,” Taehyun tells him when he finds him sulking in the Arts and Crafts Centre. 

For someone who’s still in grade school, Yeonjun can’t help but feel like Taehyun is wise beyond his years. It’s just accepted that it comes with being a son of Athena but Yeonjun thinks that Taehyun would still be the same even if he weren’t. 

Yeonjun raises a brow. “That answer is?”

“Hypnos Cabin,” Taehyun answers with the dignified air only a smartass or simply put, a kid of Athena, can have. “What did the prophecy say again?”

“‘He who shall be castrated shall be your contraction,’” Yeonjun quotes perfectly. 

Taehyun looks unimpressed, “It was ‘He who shall be awakened shall be your companion', idiot.”

He says it like that but he’s still Taehyun, so the words are nothing without a little endearment because Taehyun is sweet like that. 

Yeonjun frowns. "A Hypnos kid?"

It's not that there's anything wrong with the Hypnos Cabin. Yeonjun actually thinks they're pretty cool kids, always offering people their pillows and hot milk. But in his mental list of Hypnos kids, he just can't think of anyone in Cabin 15 who would be willing to volunteer for this quest, knowing that they'd much prefer to snooze off inside their cabin than anything.

"Don't look at me like that," Taehyun scolds him with a crumpled piece of tissue paper thrown his way. "Hypnos kids are actually dangerous if they tried." 

"Right." Yeonjun rolls his eyes. "What are they gonna do? Cuddle the monster to sleep?" 

Taehyun smirks at him, "Wait till you see."

The first time Yeonjun meets Choi Soobin, the young boy is passed out, lanky limbs sprawled as he sleeps outside his cabin, face pressed up against a rolled sleeping bag, dark hair all tousled and drool dripping from his mouth.

The drowsiness that hits Yeonjun feels like a sucker punch to the stomach. 

From beside him, he sees Taehyun, blinking rapidly, fighting the floods of weariness hitting them all at once. 

“I think I might pass out,” Taehyun mumbles as he begins to rub at his eyes. He nudges at Yeonjun, who has begun to blink blearily at the air. “C’mon, wake him up.”

Yeonjun only barely processes the words. “How does that even work?”

Taehyun doesn’t say anything, only yawning and waving his hands before he walks to the side, softly slapping at his cheeks, muttering, “Get it together, Kang Taehyun.” 

Yeonjun is left there to stare awkwardly at the slumbering kid of Hypnos.

Despite not knowing a single thing to do, Yeonjun crouches down to get a closer look at the boy on the ground. 

It’s almost weird, knowing that the Hypnos Cabin probably has an abundance of pillows and sleeping essentials inside, but then there’s this dude slumped just outside his cabin. 

Yeonjun is fighting a yawn as he brushes off the stray hairs falling on the boy’s face, just carefully lest he might get a heart attack if the boy suddenly grabs his hand and starts screaming. Yeonjun may have trained for battle for most of his life but there are surprise factors in life that have to be expected.

(“I think I like Kai,” Taehyun mumbles to him one day, after a volleyball match with the nymphs. “Y’know, the Apollo kid.”

Yeonjun furrows his brows. “Aren’t you, like, in first grade? You’re too young for that.”

“I’m twelve,” Taehyun says proudly, puffing out his chest. “I’m in sixth grade.”)

“Hey,” Yeonjun mutters. “Wake up.” 

He recalls the time where Kai had accidentally set off a bomb of Greek Fire during a council meeting and the Hypnos kid sleeping right next to Kai didn’t even flinch. He doesn’t know exactly how much it would take to wake a child of Hypnos but all he knows is that he won’t wait all day for one boy. He’ll do this quest, alone if he has to, he doesn’t care if the prophecy wills it to have two people or not.

Yeonjun, more so out of absentmindedness rather than actual thought, pokes his cheek and --

_Oh._

The boy’s eyes flutter open, they reveal a pair of dark irises, brown in the orange glow of the afternoon sun. 

They blink blearily at Yeonjun, remnants of sleep still evident in their swollen form. His cheeks are squished against the sleeping bag and there’s also dried drool on the corner of his lips.

_Pretty_.

Like a bucket of ice was thrown over his head, Yeonjun jolts into full consciousness. He rises quickly to his feet, watches in the complete silence as the boy continues to lie there before he sits up, cross-legged as he stretches his limbs, not unlike a cat. 

He finally looks up at Yeonjun --- or more like, squints at him. “Who’re you?”

“Uh.” Yeonjun, for the first time, is found speechless. No impulsive words spilling out of his lips this time. He can only gape at the pretty boy in front of him, completely dumbfounded. “I’m --- I’m Yeonjun, and ---”

“Just kidding.” A lazy grin makes its way on the boy’s face. “I already knew you were coming. I’m Choi Soobin, by the way.” 

Yeonjun furrows his brows at him. “What do you mean you already knew? You weren’t even at the council meeting.”

“Dreams.” Soobin shrugs like that would explain everything. He reaches out a hand, and without even knowing it, Yeonjun’s own hand is already grasping onto it. “Nice to meet you, partner.”

**-**

The night before they leave for their quest, Yeonjun sneaks into the Athena Cabin. The perks of being a kid of Nike is that you can outrun most things, especially the harpies coming after your head. 

“What in the name of my mother.”

Taehyun glares at him upon seeing Yeonjun grinning at him. Most of his siblings don’t bat an eye to this, only glancing at him briefly before going back to whatever nerdy book they had on their hands. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have a quest for tomorrow?”

“I know, I know, Hyunnie. I just have a question.” Yeonjun gives him a pitiful smile, one that is clawing in desperation for Taehyun’s wits to answer his thoughts. “Just one thought then I’ll be out of your hair! For tonight.”

Taehyun’s eyes narrow but he sighs in defeat, because Yeonjun knows that he knows better than to ignore a Nike kid --- Yeonjun, specifically --- when there’s something that’s probing their brain like there’s no tomorrow. 

“Yes? What is it?” 

Taehyun takes a seat on his desk, careful not to crush his constructed 3D model of a tower that Yeonjun just knows it took him weeks to build from scratch.

Nerd. Yeonjun thinks but he leans on the table anyways, on the barely free space because he knows he’d get decked if he crumples any of the blueprints scattered across Taehyun’s desk. 

“Can Hypnos kids…” Yeonjun starts, not actually knowing what he’s starting, “Okay, can Hypnos kids, like, I don’t know --- charm people?”

Taehyun blinks at him. “Like _attract_ kind of charm?”

“I don’t know,” Yeonjun says, because honestly this was just a random thought stirred at the fact that he almost stopped functioning upon his first sight of Choi Soobin. "Maybe? Yes? Okay, sure." 

"No, they can't,'' Taehyun answers his question with the look of someone who has just witnessed a dog and a duck grow ten heads together. "They're the children of Hypnos. Remember him? God of sleep? So his children are bound to have connections to _sleep_."

At the fact that an elementary schooler is trying to teach him these things gets Yeonjun grumbling, "I get it."

But then Taehyun pauses, a good moment of silence before he muses, "They can alter memories, if that’s close enough."

Yeonjun gasps.

**-**

Yeonjun’s answer is resolute in his mind. Choi Soobin from Cabin 15 had messed with his mind for an unknown and obviously malicious intent, and Yeonjun is determined to find out why. 

When they meet up at the tree to start their quest, it’s the crack of dawn, Yeonjun has been glaring at Soobin ever since he got here, but the son of Hypnos doesn’t even bat an eye in his direction, his pretty eyes half-closed as they stare at nothing, his soft looking cheeks puffing as an indication he just woke up, lips pouting, and dark hair just as dishevelled when Yeonjun saw him yesterday. 

That curse he had given Yeonjun is so strong that Yeonjun still has the mind to think ‘ _pretty_ ’ despite the eye crust he can see from where he was peering down at the boy. 

(“I don’t think they’d care enough to alter anyone’s memories though,” Taehyun told him last night, a thoughtful look in his eyes. “I think they’d rather sleep than do anything. Even if they know they cause insomnia so extreme, they can kill a man.”

Yeonjun had thought back when he had asked Soobin on what happened when they found him sleeping outside his cabin, Soobin had grinned at him and said, “I was singing a duet with Whitney Houston.”)

“Do we usually have to wake up so early for quests?” Soobin delivers his point with a yawn. 

Yeonjun agrees with that statement but knowing Hypnos kids, they probably think any time to wake up is too early. 

He doesn’t answer that, only bites back the yawn that threatens to slip from his lips. If this is something he’ll be dealing with for the whole quest, he’d rather do this alone. 

“Soobin!” 

They both turn their head back to the sound of the voice (in varying levels of energy, with Yeonjun nearly snapping his neck and Soobin doing penguin steps with a drowsy smile on his face,) and it’s that Kai kid from Cabin 7, a wide grin on his face as he runs towards them.

“Kai,” Soobin greets warmly when he gets tackled into a hug by the Apollo kid, brown curls of hair bouncing from the impact. The kid is only in sixth grade, same age as Taehyun, but he’s already up to Soobin’s collar. “What’s up?” 

“I brought this for you!” 

Kai holds up a pendant, a figure of a harp, made by clumsy fingers with how one of the supposed strings are bent in the way harp strings shouldn’t be bent and how --- what Yeonjun guesses it supposed to be gold --- the bleached yellow color doesn’t even paint the whole figure. Apollo kids were known to excel in arts, and maybe Yeonjun is being a little too harsh on a sixth grader but from what he can see --- the thought is there. 

And Yeonjun suddenly remembers Kai from those times he barged in during Arts and Crafts with the Hephaestus Cabin just to run his mouth off to Taehyun, who won’t even spare a glance at him just to focus on making his sword.

Kai, the boy behind Taehyun’s table, who always caused an accident for months whether it be small or massive (like that time the whole centre nearly collapsed from his doing had it not been for Yeojin from the Demeter Cabin summoning plants in record time,) always humming to himself as his hands focus on a miniscule object while the rest were zeroed in on their bronze weapons. 

It’s a rumor around demigods, knowingly or not, Apollo kids possess almost or actual oracular abilities. Yeonjun can make his claim on this now, seeing as how he’s witnessed Kai working on this small item for weeks, and the prophecy for Yeonjun’s quest was told two days ago. 

“Kai, I -- I don’t know what to say.” 

The drowsiness in Soobin’s eyes have dissipated now, replaced by blurs of tears. He’s staring at the pendant, now resting on his palm, like he’s unable to take his gaze off it, like it would disappear with him any second now.

Yeonjun has to pry his eyes away from the scene, his stare going to the Athena Cabin, gray appearing pink and blue in the light of the rising sun. He knows the bubbling bitterness in the pit of his stomach is wrong, but he refuses to believe it’s unwarranted. 

(“Your shroud will get made tomorrow,” Taehyun told him when he finally made his way outside the Athena Cabin. 

His voice is soft, the thoughtful and calculating tone of what makes an Athena kid now gone, and Yeonjun softens, gets reminded that outside of Taehyun’s abilities, he’s still twelve, still in sixth grade, still a kid. 

It’s a quest. It’s not just a game. Their lives are always at stake the moment they step outside this camp. It’s why they train everyday like their lives depend on it, because it does. It’s both a death sentence and a mission for a title.

Yeonjun, who has been waiting for so long his day to come, reaches his hand out to ruffle the sixth grader’s hair. 

Taehyun winces, glares at him, but Yeonjun only smiles.

“I’ll be back before you know it, Taehyun.")

“Yeonjun?”

When Soobin calls his name, Yeonjun blinks out of his reverie, whips his head back and forth in search for the beaming son of Apollo only for him nowhere to be found and he’s instead met with the son of Hypnos’s gaze, bleariness gone and staring right at Yeonjun with clear cut and unimpeded eyes.

_They can cause insomnia so extreme, they can kill a man._

He hears Taehyun's voice echo in his head, and the fear strikes Yeonjun so suddenly that he thinks it would be nice to die when he’s near his shroud, not a hassle at all for his siblings to carry his body.

But then Soobin smiles at him

All charming and teethy and dear Gods --- he has dimples, flashing from both cheeks, and the possible memory alteration makes itself known again in Yeonjun’s head.

He shakes off all thoughts of Soobin and his pretty smile and his pretty dimples, sucks in a breath, and only mumbles, “Get ready,” before he begins to jog to the peripheral of the camp’s barriers, not even waiting for the son of Hypnos, who was yelling his name. He has long limbs, he can catch up with Yeonjun in no time.

_Get a hold of yourself, Choi Yeonjun_. He tells himself in a mantra. Quest first, whatever Choi Soobin did to him, second.

**-**

Not even an hour after they stepped out the camp, Yeonjun finds himself in the passenger seat of a near broken beyond repair pick up truck they found off the side of the street, in full speed as they get chased by a harpy.

Soobin had instantly shoved him in the car, and thank the Gods that the keys were still intact and were still in good use. They've been at this for how many minutes now, this old scrappy car is bound to run out of gas soon, they probably went past the speed limit, they aren't in the legal age to start driving seeing as they're literal middle schoolers, there's also a basket of loofahs in the backseat but the only question that spills out of Yeonjun's mouth is: 

"Where did you learn how to drive?" He screams over the drowning noises of the car's screeching tires and the monster's equally screeching voice. 

Soobin glances at him, only briefly but Yeonjun doesn't miss the furrow of the skin between his brows. The clear judgement is there but he still answers, politely as if they weren't getting chased by a monster that wants to eat their guts more than anything.

"Dreams." He says it again like that would explain everything. 

Soobin almost crashes into a watermelon stand by the corner of the street had it not been for the abrupt drift of the car that almost gave Yeonjun a cardiac arrest. The Hypnos boy doesn't even look the least bit bothered, a dissatisfied hum the only thing coming from him. 

This is it. Yeonjun tells himself. He closes his eyes. This is how he's gonna die. It's not even the noble death he at least hoped to get. 

"You're crying," Soobin notes, like a genius. "What happened?"

"I'm gonna die," Yeonjun whimpers. He's gonna die here, in this tacky rundown car and have his remains scavenged by some dumbass harpy who'll probably be laughing as they feast on his beautiful body. "I'm gonna die and it's because of this stupid car, your stupid driving, and that stupid harpy!”

Soobin doesn’t seem to take any of that to heart, only pursing his lips, seeming to be in deep thought. 

He fumbles with the radio, it surprisingly still works. Yeonjun has no idea how cars work and he’s sure Soobin doesn’t as well but Big Time Rush plays somehow in a deafening volume and Yeonjun looks at Soobin with wide eyes.

“Do you want to kill them?” Soobin asks him like he’s asking Yeonjun what he wants for dinner. “I’ll slow the car down for you.” 

Yeonjun squints at him. 

“Are you insane? This isn’t like training! I could die!” 

Soobin looks at him then, wide eyed. This is the part where Yeonjun should have screamed at him to ‘watch the road!” but there’s a smile on Soobin’s face, cheeks bunched up and dimples displayed. 

There are no words exchanged but all arguments that simmer in Yeonjun’s tongue dies down. 

That’s how Yeonjun ended up scrambling for his lance in the backseat, crawling out of the car window and onto the creaky roof of the old car. 

The harpy screeches and lunges for him at first sight and it’s his first time ever coming upon an opponent. The air is violent around him, deafening as the car continues to rush through the empty streets and he can’t hear anything else but that and the sound of Big TIme Rush booming around the area. HIs nerves are everywhere, small explosions jittering around his body.

But his body seems to know how this all works, because all of his focus zeroes in on his stance, his grip, his lance. 

It’s his moment.

He sucks in a sharp breath. His fingers curl on the handle before they thrust the lance right into the harpy’s chest.

The harpy squeals and Yeonjun presses his eyes shut --- and he braces for more and waits.

But he feels the car stop under him, pulls up on the side of the road. 

When he opens his eyes, the harpy is nowhere to be found and the first thing he sees is Soobin, out of the car that’s still playing Boyfriend by Big TIme Rush, in that ugly orange camp shirt and he’s grinning up at Yeonjun, wide and teethy and those dimples make another appearance again. 

And maybe it’s the rush of adrenaline running through his veins, the glory of having slain his first ever monster, but Yeonjun feels his lips curl up and he’s returning the smile on Soobin’s face. 

“Did you know I would slay the monster?” 

The words spill out of Yeonjun’s lips in a breathless manner, near incomprehensible but he thinks Soobin would be able to understand anyways. 

“Of course,” Soobin replies breezily, like it’s the easiest thing to answer. 

It’s a good --- it’s a _great_ response, it burns pride all throughout Yeonjun’s system but he still frowns, because they’ve both known each other for a total of two days after getting the prophecy for their quest and Yeonjun just has to ask.

“How?”

Soobin looks confused, tilts his head, and tells him, “You’re a son of Nike, Yeonjun.”

He smiles at him then, and Yeonjun doesn’t know if it’s the curse Soobin casted on him or it’s a genuine thought but he seems to do that a lot --- smile and render Yeonjun speechless. 

“Of course, I knew you would win,” Soobin answers before he goes back in the car, and Yeonjun can do nothing but follow suit, his amour propre coming in the form of a victorious grin. 

**-**

In the span of two weeks, Yeonjun and Soobin managed to form a coherent system. 

They spent their nights camping out in parks, as they are near broke after almost spending their currency on a pricey diner on their first day (if Yeonjun were to speak about it honestly, the noodles and the dumpling were worth all of their allowance.) 

It’s actually a delight. They don’t have to take shifts when it comes to sleeping, because on their first night of sleeping out, a clumsy mistake that could have ended up with them dying, Yeonjun had fallen asleep on his shift and had woken up to tens of monsters sleeping around them.

(“Oh.” Yeonjun snaps his back to see Soobin rubbing his eyes lazily, a groggy smile on his face. He doesn’t even spare a glance at the minotaur fast asleep by his feet. “Good morning, Yeonjun.”

Yeonjun tries to express his words but nothing comes out but a soft screech that falls on deaf ears as Soobin digs out a croissant from his backpack.)

They spend most of their camp dinners making smores, lucky by the hands of the stack of food stuffed in Soobin’s backpack, which Yeonjun has learned consisted of snacks, a silk pillow and a sleeping bag, ten bottles of warm milk, a single bronze dagger, and more snacks. 

Yeonjun doesn’t really get to judge any of that, as all he brought was his lance, one water bottle, his sleeping bag, and tens of bronze knives. 

Taehyun was right. Hypnos kids are a different kind of scary --- Yeonjun still has yet to decide if it’s the general population or if it’s just Soobin. He’s not like Ares or Athena kids who can make you feel small with just one look. 

Soobin appears nice, a softie, just someone who wants to curl up into a ball and sleep, and that’s also him. 

But the one time Choi Soobin is devoid of any sleepiness or that stupid dopey smile on his face, it's a whole other world to live in and Yeonjun almost pissed his pants on the spot and he wasn’t even the one getting decked.

It goes like this: Yeonjun was taking a small break near the alleyways, near slumber as he was slumping on one of the crates after a good chase with another monster. It takes a good couple of minutes until Yeonjun jolts up from where he was seated from a low crate and he remembers that Nike kids run faster than any other demigods and then he remembers again: 

_Soobin._

He rushes back instantly to the spot where he left the son of Hypnos, ready to save him or at least his body so his siblings could have a body to see. 

It's hard to miss a lanky, perpetually sleepy teenage boy in a bright orange camp shirt with a bulky blue backpack so Yeonjun spots him in an instant, eye to eye with the empousa in front of him, their long golden hair striking in the glow of the afternoon light but with the way they jeer at Soobin is an unruly view. 

"Soobin," he tries to call but the boy only holds up his hand and Yeonjun clamps his mouth shut. 

This is a different sight. 

Where there would be softness in the son of Hypnos's stare, it all dissipated and the still unfamiliar unimpeded gaze burns through the empousa _,_ as they snarl at Soobin; they’re twitching uncontrollably, almost as if they are paralyzed in their spot. Soobin's eyes are near predatory, clear as the day but darkened in hunger. His jaw is set firm as his dagger rolls in his hand. 

" _Son of Hypnos_ ," the empousa hisses. Yeonjun winces at the grating sound of their voice but Soobin doesn't budge from his spot. "What have you done to me?"

"Quiet now." 

The empousa falls silent. 

Soobin takes his approach to the monster in slow, careful steps but with how the knife is spinning in between his fingers, there's something to watch out here. Yeonjun can see the vivid scarlet of the empousa’s eyes fade into a muted red, their head tilts towards Soobin. 

The empousa growls, rumbling and low but Soobin doesn't pay that any mind, and Yeonjun watches as Soobin plunges his dagger into the creature.

He watches the satisfied quirk of his lips when the empousa explodes into nothingness, and he watches in horror as Soobin turns back to him, and now he smiles.

"Yeonjun," Soobin greets him pleasantly. "You almost left me earlier."

"Yeah… Sorry about that," Yeonjun stammers out, unable to pry his eyes away from the dagger in Soobin's hand. "Good job, by the way."

Soobin hums. "Thanks." 

So now they're here, hiking up in some unknown woods somewhere in Idaho, bagging up a feast large enough to feed a community of starving toddlers. 

They’re both still in their camp clothes, all stained with all kinds of germs they picked up from New York to Idaho and they reek of teenage sweat. Even if Yeonjun likes to change it up a bit by exchanging it with his jacket, it doesn’t do much.

This is the final part of their quest and there’s an odd sensation clogging up all of Yeonjun’s system. It was all warm and strange and he doesn’t know what to call it. 

“I have a question,” Yeonjun tells Soobin, who looks like he’s about to fall asleep any moment. Yeonjun has learned to fight off the drowsiness in their time together, only barely as he still has to bite back a yawn as he continues, “Seeing as this is almost over and all.”

The son of Hypnos glances at him. His eyes widen at the sight of Yeonjun blinking all weird to fight off the sleepiness and suddenly all of the weariness dragging him down dissipates.

Soobin smiles at him, “Okay. Shoot.”

“Did you curse me?” 

It’s been a week and it’s still biting at Yeonjun. 

Sure, he thinks Soobin is nice and cute. He has working eyes after all, but it’s just incredibly uncanny that every time Soobin has that smile --- the smile that’s both slowly becoming familiar and still surprising for Yeonjun --- Yeonjun finds himself unable to comprehend anything and that has risked both their lives multiple times. 

(It was their sixth day, a Sunday, and they had snagged off a basket of apples from the nice old lady after her church service. Yeonjun had almost cut her throat with a dagger because was she seriously just an old lady or another ugly shapeshifting monster that wants to eat their intestines? It’s only been three days but he’s already gained so much trust issues. 

(“That wasn’t the Baymax mascot, Soobin,” Yeonjun sobs after one hectic afternoon that was their trip to the grocery store. “That was just a stupid stupid stupid manticore!”)

But Soobin had held his wrist, gave him a Look, and Yeonjun dropped his hand in an instant. It’s only been six days but while Yeonjun doesn’t exactly trust the son of Hypnos wholly yet, he’s learned to trust Soobin’s judgement of what is a monster and what isn’t.

“Thank you, miss.” Soobin gratefully took the basket from the old lady and she spent a few minutes of cooing over them before she eventually left, leaving both of their pinched cheeks a bright red. 

He had turned to Yeonjun, dimples flash as a wide grin had spread on his face, and suddenly all the things that make up a brain turned into nothing as Yeonjun could do nothing but stare dumbly at the son of Hypnos. 

But that dopey smile faded into a look of horror and Soobin had shouted, “Yeonjun! Manticore!” and Yeonjun instantly snapped out of his reverie, brandishing his lance in an instant.)

Soobin blinks at him, “Huh?”

“Taehyun said you guys could do memory alterations,” Yeonjun continues. “I’m asking you if you did that to me or if you hexed me or whatever.”

“Us Hypnos kids can’t curse anyone though?” Soobin frowns at him, appearing more upset at the fact that Yeonjun got his Hypnos Kids trivia wrong rather than the fact that he just asked him if he just cursed someone. He goes on, “We can change up memories, we can also retrieve them! And we can also do hypnosis! Pretty cool, right?”

There’s a proud curl of his lips there, and yeah, it actually does sound cool that you can just sleep and you can sing a duet with Whitney Houston more than ten times but Yeonjun is pretty cool himself and all he really wants to know right now is if he got cursed by Soobin or not. 

“I get too tired whenever I do it though so I only use it rarely.”

Yeonjun furrows his brows and tells him, “You’re always tired, Soobin.”

“Heh, you’re right,” Soobin giggles, not in the slightest bit offended. “But to answer your question, I didn’t. What makes you say that?”

This takes Yeonjun by surprise. Just a little. This was easier than he thought.

“Well...” 

Yeonjun starts off by recollecting everything that’s happened in the past two weeks. Soobin listens intently to all of his thoughts. He nods and mumbles an occasional, “go on,” when Yeonjun pauses mid-sentence to confirm if Soobin is still on the same page, he hums when he thinks Yeonjun says something particularly interesting to him, like when Yeonjun mentions the time he found a bag of chips outside of a Bath and Body Works after a harpy tried to chase them.

“I see,” Soobin muses after he finishes his story. He looks thoughtful, but Yeonjun really can’t decipher whether he actually is thinking of something or it’s just the sleepiness getting to him again. 

“What do you think?”

“I think you are cursed,” Soobin tells him honestly, his expression solemn. “But I know it’s not my doing. I only know how to curse people when they’re sleeping.”

Yeonjun’s eyes widen. “Have you ever done that?” 

“No one I could think of,” Soobin mumbles. He gives Yeonjun an assuring grin. “Maybe we could ask Artemis when we see her!”

Yeonjun’s mouth falls open, about to tell him off, something along the words, ‘ _Oh my Gods, Soobin, you can’t just call the gods by their names_ \---’

“Ask me what?”

They both whip their heads around to see no one other than the goddess Artemis, her clear silver eyes are as cold as winter but they burn right through them. Her huntresses are nowhere to be found, and somehow, Yeonjun is thankful because he wants minimum witnesses possible in case he ever pisses his pants.

“Goddess,” Yeonjun stammers out and he bows. “What an honor it is to meet you.” 

“Son of Nike.” 

She doesn’t spare him a glance, and given her disposition, Yeonjun isn’t surprised and he merely scoots away because she might like some space. Soobin is only looking at her like how he looks at most things, spaced out and almost as if he might pass out any second now. 

“Soobin Choi, son of Hypnos.” He wouldn’t dare say it out loud but Yeonjun could swear there was a ghost of a smile somewhere there. 

“Goddess,” Soobin greets the goddess warmly. That smile comes back on his face, the one where his eyes turn into crescents and his cheeks bunch up with dimples. “An honor it is to meet you again.” 

Yeonjun throws Soobin an astonished look. “Wait, you’ve met her before?” 

Soobin confirms it with a happy hum. “We played jenga before.” 

“ _Jenga?_ ” He can’t believe his own ears. “How?”

“Dreams.”

Soobin tosses it back at him whimsically. It seems to be what makes up a majority of his answers that Yeonjun doesn’t know if he actually believes it or he’s just grown immune to it. It’s definitely possible for a child of Hypnos, but learning how to make crepe suzette because you dreamt making it with Julia Child is just absurd. 

“That is true, son of Nike,” Artemis confirms with a nod, her dark hair fanning over her face. “I admit my defeat here but I won’t go easy next time, Soobin Choi.”

Huh. Yeonjun looks up at the night sky, with only the wide moon and the goddess illuminating their way, and thinks to himself: This feels like a fever dream.

**-**

When they hand over the food to the moon goddess, they are invited for a stay in one of the huntresses’ camps before Artemis would transport them back to their camp. 

‘An easier and more efficient way to travel back without wasting any more energy,” she told them but Yeonjun just thinks it’s because she wants a jenga rematch against Soobin. 

They ask her about Yeonjun’s curse but she only raises a brow at him incredulously as if he had grown ten extra heads before she shakes her head and says, “There is no such curse upon you, son of Nike.” 

So, there's _that_.

Yeonjun watches a total of thirty-five rounds of jenga between Soobin and Artemis alongside the hunters who are of course, all cheering for their mistress. Yeonjun only spectates without much bias, watching a good even match and wishing he could play too but from the threatening look in the goddess’s eyes, he wouldn’t dare say anything.

But Soobin glances at him, just briefly, but he leans in a bit closer to Yeonjun, eyes still zeroing in the jenga tower, and he whispers, “We’ll play later, if you want.”

Yeonjun clearly remembers the goddess’s words in his head; no curse present, never there to begin with and yet there he is, mind empty with only white noise playing.

He only shakes his head, "Let's save that for when we get back."

Soobin nods, and turns back to the game. The light of the campfire spills over his face in vivid orange hues in this silver night, bathing him in its radiance, emphasizing every little feature as if to tell Yeonjun not to miss a single detail: from the way his focused eyes would crinkle when the tower would tumble to his scrunched up nose when he makes a mistake to his passing dimples when he claims a win.

And it hits Yeonjun that he was looking at this all wrong. 

He wasn’t cursed, but rather it’s simply the power of the Hypnos child overwhelming him. It’s been two weeks but Yeonjun still hasn’t gotten immune to the presence of Soobin… yet. But he’ll get there. He’ll make sure.

He makes his way inside their tent around the fiftieth round of jenga, the goddess showing no signs of ever stopping until her score topples over the son of Hypnos’s. It was getting boring, and from the way his eyes were drooping, Yeonjun could tell Soobin shared the same sentiment.

Usually, around this hour of the night, even when all the lights are all out, Yeonjun would find himself still tossing and turning in his bed until he eventually gets tired and just passes out. But in the span of two weeks, whether it was his abilities as a child of Hypnos or just the presence of the warm milk and the feather pillows and the fluffy --- emphasis on the fluffy quilts, Yeonjun had been sleeping a bit more easily with Soobin as his company. 

(“You’re like, hot choco,” Yeonjun is mumbling in his groggy state of mind. Soobin is beside him, all snug in his sleeping bag. He looks like a caterpillar like that, and it shouldn’t be funny but Yeonjun is giggling anyway. 

Soobin already looks halfway to sleep but he still hums a muffled, “What?” 

“Hot choco,” Yeonjun repeats. “You’re warm and people drink you when it’s cold.”

It doesn’t make sense at all but somehow Soobin is able to piece together his jumbled thoughts. “People also drink warm milk when it’s cold.”

“Yeah, but hot choco is sweet.” Yeonjun has his eyes closed now. “I like hot choco.”)

It takes a tens of minutes until Soobin enters their tent after the campfire has been put off, setting everything in darkness, finally free from Artemis’s clutches. 

He looks sleepy but he always looks like that so Yeonjun only scoots from his space wordlessly as he watches Soobin fall face down onto his sheets, not bothering to open the sleeping bag underneath him. 

Silence washes over them, and Yeonjun is convinced that Soobin is now fast asleep until he hears a muffled voice from beside him.

“We’re going back tomorrow,” Soobin says, voice thick with relief. “We actually survived this.”

Yeonjun thinks of the shroud in his cabin, thinks of his siblings, thinks Taehyun and his stupid trivia of the day, and he exhales.

“Yeah. We are.”

They made it this far with no major complications, a rare thing to have for demigods. It could be mere luck, a miracle, or the Fates’ doing. Yeonjun could say it’s because of their added efforts together but there’s never a sure way to say, even for the son of the goddess who holds victory in her hands. 

“I’m glad.” 

Yeonjun turns his head and sees the gift Kai gave to Soobin on the day of their quest; he vaguely remembers the bleached yellow color but in the dimness of their tent, it gleams bright and gold, clenched tightly in Soobin’s fingers. 

Something drops in Yeonjun’s stomach when he gets reminded that Soobin is just like him too, a kid that he has people waiting for him back in camp, worried sick over his well-being, that he has a shroud waiting for him too.

“Hey, Yeonjun,” Soobin starts again. “Why did you want to get a quest so bad?” 

Yeonjun doesn’t remember disclosing this information to anyone but he supposes he hasn’t been exactly subtle about it either. It’s not like subtlety is his thing anyways. Nike kids are made to excel in every shining way. 

“Well, I am a child of Nike after all. We always want to prove something,” Yeonjun begins with the most evident fact there is. All of the Nike Cabin were thrown into momentary chaos on who gets to go or not, Yeonjun was lucky to be the one chosen. “Not just to people but… my mom, especially.”

Soobin’s reply is a soft hum, “Your mom?”

“She’s… complicated.” Yeonjun averts his gaze from Soobin and he zeroes his attention in on the light reflecting off the pendant. “She’s a goddess, of course she would be, but she’s still there, y’know? I don’t if it’s because I'm her kid or not but I wanna prove myself.”

“That you can win?”

“That I’m worthy to be her kid,” Yeonjun corrects. “That I’m worth being called a child of the goddess of victory.”

He remembers the first time he was introduced to the camp. 

He was ten when he opened the door to a satyr with an overzealous disposition who had come to his tiny home back in the slumps.

‘You’re a demigod,’ he was told, and Yeonjun only blinked then but something in the back of his mind was stirring then, told him that he was made to be special.

He was claimed when he was thirteen, only three years ago, a golden laurel wreath had made its appearance above his head during breakfast, right when he was about to gulp down fifteen grape pieces. 

‘A son of Nike,’ they had told him, right before other godly parents had begun their claim. 

There were numerous kids that followed after Yeonjun, but even after that, the thought of ‘I’m special’ never left his head, and never did. 

If it’s not the Fates’ decision, then he’ll make it his, no matter what. 

He tells Soobin exactly that, and the other boy falls silent, minutes stretching over into what feels like hours, and for a moment, disappointment sinks into his stomach, that Soobin had fallen asleep as he bore his soul to him. 

But he hears a soft chuckle, and he furrows his brows, “Are you laughing?”

“Not really, no,” Soobin replies. From the faint glow of the pendant, Yeonjun could see his smile clearly, dimples on display. “It’s just that, you already are special, Yeonjun.”

“What makes you say that? We’ve only known each other for two weeks,” Yeonjun points out but the grin never fades from Soobin’s face. 

“The chances of demigods making it through a quest are slim. We all know that,” Soobin starts. “But when I heard you were my partner, there was a part of me that was still dubious but I just knew we would make it with barely any scratch.”

Yeonjun finishes it for him, “Because I’m a son of Nike.”

“Because you’re Choi Yeonjun,” Soobin corrects him instantly, his eyes gleam even in the dark, “who just so happened to be a son of Nike.” 

Yeonjun’s brain turns to a halt. 

That’s a new one. A little unfamiliar to his ears. 

But there’s something settling in his veins, washing over him with a warmth that’s unfamiliar but not unwelcome. And he feels himself smile. 

He turns to Soobin then, filled with sudden desire to ask him too: ‘Why did you choose to come to this quest?’, wants to know more about him too but Soobin is already mumbling under his breath.

“Good night, Yeonjun.”

And sleep comes to Yeonjun like an embrace.

**-**

Come dawn, the rose-pink color of the light breaking into the sky, Yeonjun and Soobin are found on the outskirts of Camp Half-Blood as per the goddess’s words, still in their muddy shoes, stained shirts, and dirtied pants.

Yeonjun didn’t know what for but Yeonjun absolutely didn’t miss the rise of the moon goddess’s brow right before she transported them back. 

“That was a journey,” Soobin comments as they trudge back to the camp. 

Yeonjun can see it from here, the cabins and the buildings all looking so miniscule from this vantage point alone. 

For a brief moment, he wonders what the gods see then but he shakes that thought off right away. He would prefer not to know.

“That’s right,” Yeonjun agrees. “We made it safe and sound.”

"We're home."

Soobin grins at him, the pink glow of the sky looking absolutely beautiful when it’s painting him in its radiance. Yeonjun can’t help but grin back.

And they're home.

They’re welcomed back to the camp with loud cheers, confetti, and fire. 

Soobin and Yeonjun are separated instantly, pulled by their respective siblings and friends. Taehyun instantly tackles him in an embrace, tears streaming down his face.

“I made a mistake,” Taehyun is rambling, all snot-nosed as he sobs. “I thought you would still be here for another hour. I --- I was going to give you something but you already left --- and I didn’t know if you would still be breathing by the time you come back here and I ---”

“Oh, Taehyun.” 

Yeonjun feels his eyes sting at the son of Athena’s words. That day, he had been waiting, for something to remind him of home, like the harp kept in the palm of Soobin’s hand. He didn’t realize Taehyun had been searching for him as well. 

He ruffles his hair, “I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“Stupid!” 

Taehyun hits his shoulder but he still burrows his head on Yeonjun’s chest anyway, and despite the ugly sobbing between the two of them, a laugh bubbles out of Yeonjun’s throat and he clutches Taehyun close to him.

It’s a loud time when they burn the shrouds. There are people rubbing at Yeonjun’s head, throwing their arms around him, and he didn’t know if he was seeing things or not but he’s pretty sure Joohyun from the Aphrodite Cabin gave him an approving smile. 

Soobin finds him by dusk, a small smile on his face as he joins Yeonjun from where he was sitting by the steps of his cabin. The drowsiness is still there when he makes himself at home but Yeonjun doesn’t miss the brief part of his lips when he sees the cabin exterior change from gold to a light blue color.

“Cool, right?” Yeonjun grins at him. Soobin nods, and they’re quiet for a while, they don't speak a word nor do they look at each other, eyes taking in the view of the camp. “What’s up?”

“Nothing, really,” Soobin tells him. “I just wanted to thank you. You were a really great partner.”

“You too, Soobin,” he says, and he means it, because even if he doesn’t let in on it, Yeonjun doesn’t think he could have gone through this quest sane enough had it not been for Soobin. “There would be no partner like you.”

“Hell yeah,” Soobin chuckles. “There’d be no partners like the two of us, Choi Yeonjun. Let it be known.”

The night begins to trickle in, dark ink seeping into the sky as the stars and the moon start to appear, silver in their light, and Yeonjun is reminded of the last night, the questions in his head, and he looks at Soobin.

His gaze is already on Yeonjun, the twinkle of the stars in his eyes, and Yeonjun thinks he has more time to ask now, more hours and more years until he asks.

Soobin rises to his feet, stretches his limbs with a groan, and he glances back at Yeonjun, who is still at the steps, unable to pry his eyes off the sight that is Choi Soobin. 

He has more time, more hours and more years to be immune to this presence. He’ll get a hang of it.

“We should get our celebratory dinner. I’m starved from all that.” Soobin offers his hand and Yeonjun blinks. “Should we, partner?”

It feels like a promise of a lifetime, Yeonjun thinks to himself, takes Soobin’s hand in his, and hopes that it is.

**Author's Note:**

> hi hi!! i'll be posting the 2nd and last chap soon!! but thank you so much for reading!! please leave a kudos!! or a comment!! or both hehe <3
> 
> follow me on twt: [sbgyu_](https://twitter.com/sbgyu_?s=09)


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